SB CH3

Samsara Breaker Chapter 3: Doors of Death

The doors of death creaked slightly open, but that’s all it took to arouse Indra’s intent to live. That’s all it took to slam the doors shut once again.

If only it were as simple as letting those powerful jaws surround him, as easy as letting those enormous fangs sink into him. Sadly it was not. Indra no longer desired death. Genesis, no longer desired death. There would be none here today.

Indra could feel the new abilities that lay dormant within him, he just needed to bring them out. It was odd, just moments ago he didn’t feel any different other than all of his senses being dialed to ten. Now he felt like he had these abilities for years inside him, like they were just waiting for this sort of situation. It was as if they were asleep, hibernating, and now this snakes attempt on his life had awakened them.

Anger overtook the razorfang, it’s enormous jaws were wide and his fangs bared, he would feast today, first on this tiny creature and then the real prize he had already claimed. The Razorfang hissed and lashed out, expecting his bladelike teeth to meet flesh but they were met with nothing but air and confusion.

Next to his head was the tiny creature, it should be in his mouth, it should be dead, the serpent didn’t understand what had happened, only that he was angry and that his prey had somehow evaded him. Impossible, his speed was unparalleled, even the Tempest Eagle couldn’t dodge his attacks.

What is going on?

Little good speed did when Indra’s movement was nearly instant.

information flooded into Indra’s mind again and just like before, it was simply a matter of him picking out the right file. Information on wood, metal, space, time, everything that pertained to the elements the system had said he could manipulate. Then he remembered, Elemental enlightenment.

Could this be a part of it?

He went from knowing nothing to suddenly understanding how to bend reality to his will so he decided to do just that, like picking a file from a cabinet he plucked the information from his mind and set it into action.

By simply using his mind Indra closed the distance between him and a point in space that was only four meters away. In simpler terms he moved but the snake didn’t, however, it was by no means of propulsion. what was previously four meters became zero, Indra treated the portion of space that was four meters away as an anchor and pulled the space around him and everything inside which consisted of himself and some air toward it. When he looked back it was as if a clone of himself remained in the spot he just was, like an afterimage of himself. The snakes powerful bite clamped down and went right through his clone. It snapped its jaws three more times before finally realizing it was getting nowhere.

“Genesis. Congratulations. You have taught yourself spatial tethering. 40 bonus points. It is now your skill.

Bonus points, what the heck is that? Indra decided this was not the time for that.

After using this ability he suddenly knew exactly how far things were from him. The snake that seemed angrier than ever was exactly four point three meters from him and closing, soon after it figured out the clone wasn’t him it somehow knew precisely where he was and lashed its body out instantly. not only did he know how far but Indra knew precisely how long it would take the Demonic beast to reach him at its current speed.

Elemental enlightenment again? Indra smiled but it was immediately wiped from his face, painted over with shock. The Razorfang was already upon him and this time he might not be able to dodge such an attack even with a near instant movement technique.

How did it move so quickly?

It was like his mind had suddenly become a super computer, making calculations no normal person could ever do in such a short timeframe, he had just enough time to evade death but not injury. Once again Indra used his new technique, this time he chose a spot much further away. He used a space twenty meters away near the canopy of a large tree. Before he could activate his skill the snake’s teeth closed on him but the fang only made it in about an inch before he was able to escape. This time he was more precise, only taking with him his own body and nothing more. He was lucky.

Indra appeared on a large tree branch and stumbled, almost falling off. His breaths were heavy and they came in strides. Even His vision was blurred somewhat, using that technique took a lot out of him. He restrained himself from puking. If the snake found him he would be dead. Indra watched intently at his opponent’s actions. Since he had meditated earlier his senses seemed to be under control. They were so much more acute now. He could see the beast clearly from his perch and it seemed angrier than ever.

Something else occurred as well, it was as if he lost a part of himself using that ability, he had become distanced from something that was previously a part of him but he couldn’t tell what it was. He suddenly longed for a piece of himself that no longer remained.

The snake lashed its head left then right, behind him, everywhere around him but all that remained of Indra was his afterimage. It didn’t move for some time, it seemed like it was just thinking. Maybe waiting for him to make a move. After about ten minutes of inactivity its huge body seemed to be retracting.

Is it leaving? Indra hoped so, this demonic beast was completely out of his class, its speed was incredible and he couldn’t even imagine how to begin hurting it. He watched the snake as it slowly coiled its body back around the giant tree that the Tempest eagle was nesting in. He could still see feathers all over, stuck in some of the foliage, a final statement by the now perished guardian. A pang of sadness washed over him but the bird was going to eat him just as the snake was it just took a less violent approach.

The Razorfang stopped moving when it’s entire body was finally around the tree then suddenly it began to disappear. The colors of its body began to meld into their background. The green scales became brown and had the same texture as the bark, soon the entire body disappeared until only one part remained. Its eyes, they were red as blood and exuded an aura of pure hunger. There was one more thing about them.

They were staring right at him. Then they disappeared as well.

I’m dead.

Indras heart nearly burst free from his chest and a round of nausea hit him like a strike from one of the most powerful masters at the monastery. He nearly fell from his perch on the tree. If the snake knew where he was then there was no escaping it again, he felt a little better, he might even be able to use his ability one more time but he had a hunch it wouldn’t be enough to escape again. He was going to die. Then he remembered something about larger snakes, they move very slowly outside of water, that gave him something he needed desperately, time.

Indra knew a lot about animals, his favorite were birds but they all fascinated him so he did a lot of research on them. Large snakes moved slowly which is why they waited and struck their prey with lightning speed. Even though this was no normal snake he assumed he had some time before it could reach him this high up without giving away its position by moving too quickly. The first thing he did was begin climbing, he would give himself as much time as he could.

The climb was surprisingly easy, his body felt extremely light and dexterous, Indra pulled himself up to the higher branches with little to no effort and he felt stronger too, he flexed his muscles and was quite impressed they were at least double the size which still wasn’t much. The higher he got the thinner the branches but with this newfound lightweight body Indra easily traversed the upper reaches of the tree, he was to the top in no time.

Indra couldn’t stop thinking about how his meditation had such an immediate effect upon his body earlier and that was only to clear the mind of ailments there were so many more forms of meditation he’d like to try, endless different effects they had on the body. If his theory was correct, the system accelerated these effects making them almost immediate. Amid all the different forms he practiced over the years one stood out now. Zhan Zhuang the art of cultivating boundless energy. It’s known to enhance one’s energy, mental clarity and internal strength, this is how he would regain the strength he lost using the so called spatial tethering. That was another thing that interested him, the system had told him it was now his skill. Could he learn more? It seemed that his mind was the limit. Thinking that some random voice in his head was giving him all this information made him feel a bit more insane every time he listened to it. He didn’t even understand how he could believe such things but he was beginning to and that’s all that mattered.

Indra scolded himself, this was not the time to be thinking about all of that, not the time to overthink. This was the time to act. This was life or death.

Indra knew from experience that one could direct their qi throughout the body, this was a part of his martial arts training, manipulating his qi to aid in his fighting style. It seemed everything he learned had significance in the conquest system. He would take full advantage.

With one single leap, he didn’t know what to expect but he took a chance anyway.

Indra launched his light body into the air four meters above the tree, he was so light that he thought a small breeze may carry him away. When he came back down he channeled some of his qi into the very bottom of his left foot enabling him to land on the very tip of the tree focusing his qi into that single point and stood with his right foot resting on the side of his left knee, his right knee pointing outward. His arms were above his head, palms together forming an arrowhead shape pointing towards the sky. Then he began Meditating. Although this was not the proper stance for this meditation technique if he could manipulate his qi correctly it would be fine.

He never actually expected to achieve any of this. He thought he’d try to jump, fall back down immediately and be back to square one. Instead, he now stood atop a giant tree balancing on one foot and was meditating.

Maybe this is real after all.

Indra relaxed his body as he did so many times whilst using this technique. His mind became three things, empty, active and alert. His eyes were closed this time. Something odd occurred, now that he wasn’t constantly running for his life he noticed something that he hadn’t before. He could sense even the slightest movement in a five meter radius. Every time a leaf caught the wind, becoming displaced Indra felt it immediately. He ignored this, allowing his mediation to continue after only twenty more seconds his body felt completely rejuvenated.

It worked!

Indra’s mind raced at the possibilities. There were thousands of meditation techniques with countless effects on the body. His exhaustion had completely disappeared. Not only that but his mind had become clear, his focus sharper. Then he remembered, the clock was ticking, the Razorfang surely did not waste time celebrating. He assumed he still had at least an entire hour at the pace he estimated the snake would have to take. He entered into his meditative state once again, allowing his mind to clear and he used this state to formulate a plan. The information he had received on spatial manipulation earlier had come in three parts, one being the use of an anchor to use his spatial tethering ability, the other two he had not used. One was on how to create pockets of space in which he could use to store things, the other simply giving him insight into his new abilities. This would play a part in his plan but first he needed to make use of his other abilities. In those ten minutes due to his meditative state he was able to formulate a plan that he’d estimated would have taken him hours otherwise. The first step was to put all his faith in the system. Whether or not it was all a dream didn’t matter, he was committed.

Indra focused all of his attention on one thought, fire. His body temperature rose and another info dump occurred, this one not giving him techniques but loads of information. Indra’s mood also changed he became angry, furious at the snake that hunted him, he wanted to destroy, he wanted to consume, he was… hungry? His stomach literally hurt from the emptiness. It growled but he ignored the gnawing sensation and began the next phase of his plan.

First he tested his abilities, he generated a small flame in his palm that extinguished almost immediately, he tried again and again over the course of ten more minutes, burning up more of his time. This was necessary. Now he could generate a stable flame and even increase or decrease its size by controlling how much oxygen it took in.

Just like before he felt like he had become disconnected from something, like he had lost a part of himself.

His mind was directly connected to the flame, he could command it, in simple terms, he could control its hunger. This way it would consume more oxygen or he could lessen the hunger so that the flame was stable or halt it so that it extinguished. This would work perfectly. He began the next phase. Indra began generating pockets of space from the open air above him that were filled with oxygen, to him they looked like miniscule spheres of water, each one the size of a teardrop but each one was a sphere filled with oxygen about one meter in diameter. In the center of each one Indra placed a small flame that took in the oxygen at a slow but steady rate as to not use it up quickly.

Over the course of twenty more minutes Indra alternated between meditating and enacting his plan, he needed to mediate after each action because every time he created a sphere it was extremely taxing on his body. It took all of his concentration for each individual sphere. Each time he completed one he placed them underneath one of the leaves that surrounded him, by the end he had over two dozen spheres. Each one was extremely unstable, so much so that if touched by anything other than a light breeze the pocket of space containing the flame would disperse.

He had twenty minutes left and He once again climbed to the top of the tree and leapt, landing in the same position as before. This time when he began Meditating he practiced mindful meditation completely clearing his mind of ailments, forgetting his entire situation completely. just as he did in the nest. Again the position was off for this form of meditation but his control over the qi flows in his body made up for it.

Indra’s eyes remained open just as before and in moments the sphere just like before appeared before him, it was just as he left it. A hard layer of stone. He continued his concentration on the sphere and it changed again. This time a layer of metal encased the stone next. His mood shifted and he felt destructive, but different from when it was on fire, the anger was… sharper, more precise if that made any sense. He expected it to change again but after five minutes of waiting it did not. He waited two more before something finally happened but not what he suspected. The sphere turned white and separated into five balls of shimmering light. four of them orbited around a single one that remained stagnant in the middle. Soon the lights faded and each one took it’s own form. Fire, water, metal, earth, all hovered around what he assumed was space/time hovering in the middle, it looked like a semi translucent unstable liquid. There was something wrong here, where were the spheres that represented spirit or wood. Indra was convinced that his theory was correct. He only had about five minutes left so he checked his stats again.

Indra didn’t know what to think. Somehow he had leveled up, and his space/time and fire manipulation had changed from minor skills to what seemed like just regular ones. The biggest shock was the fact that wood and spirit manipulation had completely disappeared. Indra temper rose and he longed for what now seemed to be lost to him. He couldn’t understand what had happened, why he had lost them. He dwelled on the thought until something completely unexpected happened. Something had entered the five meter radius in which he could sense all movement. Indra was completely taken aback. He had spent so much time dwelling on his abilities that he completely forgot the task at hand, the snake. His greatest strength was also his greatest weakness, his mind.

No matter.

Indra was taken by surprise but that didn’t mean his plan wouldn’t work. A wicked smile crept onto his face as he activated his spatial tethering ability, he definitely didn’t want to be here for this. His plan would still work but instead of getting out clean like he had hoped, due to him getting distracted he wasn’t ready for the Razorfang. Its bite caught him right in the side before he was able to disappear, but before he did, Indra muttered a single word.

“Shāoshāng.” Then he vanished

His right side leaked blood profusely. Indra ignored the pain for now and watched his plan take effect. From his perch atop another tree he crouched in the foliage, his eyes reflected the colors of orange and yellow, and the smile upon his face was that of a man who had tasted true power for the first time… and he loved it.